Frequently asked questions

No. You design, publish, and manage everything from the console and the scanner app. A REST API is there when you want to connect your own systems, not before.

No. Stow Cards runs beside the till you already use. Staff scan passes with the Stow Cards Merchant app on a phone or tablet, and you run points, tiers and member-only offers from the Stow Cards console. If you want your checkout to add points on its own, the REST API can do that.

Yes. The Pass Designer is free and anonymous. Your draft saves automatically, so you can leave and pick up where you stopped.

Every program gets a hosted enrollment page with a QR code. Customers scan it, fill a short form, and add the pass to their wallet in one tap. Print the code on a poster, a table tent, or a receipt.

Create a free account, pick a template, add your logo, and publish. Your program then has a hosted enrollment page and a QR code, and customers can add the pass from there. See how it works.

No. There is no customer app to install: passes go straight into Apple Wallet on supported iPhones or Google Wallet on supported Android devices.

Yes. One design serves both platforms. iPhones get an Apple Wallet pass and Android phones get a Google Wallet pass, with the same branding and the same live updates.

Yes. On iPhone, a changed balance can show a message on the lock screen. On Android, the Google Wallet pass updates in place. Customers never have to open anything.

QR, PDF417, Aztec, and Code 128. QR is the default and the right choice for most programs.

Yes, for both ecosystems. Passes can carry Apple Wallet’s VAS fields and Google Wallet’s Smart Tap fields, so a customer taps their phone on a compatible terminal instead of scanning. Wallet-side approval is part of the rollout (Apple’s NFC entitlement and Google’s Smart Tap certification are in progress), and tap needs a compatible terminal on your side. QR and Member ID lookup work today without either. See NFC tap-to-redeem or talk to us about rolling it out.

On iPhone, yes. An Apple Wallet pass can carry up to 10 places, each with a short line of lock-screen text: your store locations, once their coordinates are saved, and any spots you add in the Pass Designer. When a customer is near one of them, iPhone can suggest the pass on the lock screen. iOS decides when that happens. You can also add iBeacons, for example at the counter. Google Wallet passes don’t use locations, and Stow Cards never receives a customer’s location.

Adjust a balance from the console or scan a pass at the till, and the platform rebuilds the pass and pushes it to every device carrying it, in real time.

Every member gets a short, scannable code, like 7K2Q9FMRDC. Its 10 characters skip look-alikes such as 0 and O or 1 and I, so it is easy to read aloud or type. It is what the pass barcode encodes, what the till scanner looks up, and what your console displays.

Yes. Send targeted pass updates to all members, a program or a segment, and see which members received each one.

Yes. Add locations under one account and give staff role-based access. Members earn and redeem at any location on the same pass.

Traffic is TLS encrypted, every request is authenticated with scoped tokens, calls between our services are signed, and each merchant's data is tenant-scoped. Details are on our security page.

You do. You are the controller of the data your customers submit; we process it to run your program. You can export it, and we never sell it. See the privacy policy.

On our servers only. Apple and Google signing credentials, and each pass's authentication token, are never exposed to browsers or apps.

Yes. Start on the free Starter plan: it needs no credit card and runs a live program, from publishing passes to scanning them at the till. The Pass Designer works without an account. Paid pricing and plan limits, including the free plan’s, are being finalized.

Program count, member volume, locations, staff access, campaigns, API traffic, SSO, audit, and migration needs all affect the operating plan. See the plans page.

Of course. Book a demo and we'll walk through your program before you commit to anything.